


a moment that's held in your arms

by callunavulgari



Series: winds of the etherium [4]
Category: His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman, Kingdom Hearts, Treasure Planet (2002)
Genre: Daemons, M/M, Space Pirates, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-05
Updated: 2013-04-05
Packaged: 2017-12-07 12:43:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/748640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callunavulgari/pseuds/callunavulgari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I never said nothing was wrong with you, you big-eyed freak, just that I ain't never seen one of you before,” she cocks her head a little bit, studying him as he zips back and forth in front of them. “You’re all kinds of pretty though.” </p><p>-A retelling of parts of my Treasure Planet verse with daemons-</p>
            </blockquote>





	a moment that's held in your arms

**Author's Note:**

> Axel's daemon, [Fiametta](http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/imgs/512x768/1111_1111/1111/4185.jpeg), is a near-eastern fire salamander with a red-orange morph. Her name means 'little fiery one' in Italian and is also apparently [a ballet](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiametta) which is also called The Salamander.  
> Roxas's daemon, [Khnum](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bd/Ischnura_heterosticta02.jpg/800px-Ischnura_heterosticta02.jpg), is a male common bluetail damselfly. His name comes from the Egyptian god of rebirth, creation and the evening sun, because I am a nerd.  
> Larxene's daemon, [Marduk](http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/879/20085896.JPG), is an offworld variation of the spotted hyena. His name stems from the Babylonian fire-breathing, lightning throwing storm god who has four eyes and four ears so he can see and hear everything.
> 
> Axel's mom has a giant-squid-esque creature that does not exist on Earth.

Axel doesn’t get around to seeing Roxas’ daemon until the kid’s already been onboard for over a week. Granted he doesn’t really even see him much on deck, since Blondie tends to stick to his cabin, staying as far away as possible from Larxene’s group, which includes Axel himself. For awhile, Fiametta even jokes that maybe their little prodigal boy doesn’t even have one and that’s why he mostly keeps to himself.  
  
“Not funny, Fi,” he tells her, glaring when she just gives him a lazy grin and a flick of her tongue before going back to sunning herself against his shoulder.  
  
He doesn’t think much of it until Marduk makes a biting comment about it in the mess hall, curled up around Larxene’s knees and grinning at her. “Wouldn’t be surprised,” he cackles. “Not like the kid’s got much of a spine anyway.”  
  
“What are you doing, Axel?” Fi asks, giving him a suspicious look.  
  
He shrugs, ignoring the disgruntled little chirp she makes when the move nearly dislodges her. “I’m gonna go ask the damn kid myself, it ain't like I don’t know where his damn cabin is.”  
  
“But!” she starts, giving an agitated flick of her tail.  
  
“I don’t wanna hear it, we can still rob these folks blind if I end up settlin’ my curiosity,” he interrupts, boots clunking up the stairs.  
  
She droops a little against his neck, making an exasperated click in the back of her throat when Axel just knocks on the kid’s door. “Yeah, well, maybe. You’re gonna end up likin’ him too much, ’s all I’m sayin’.”  
  
He sneers at her, but five minutes later when he lets himself into the room, still unanswered, and sees the kid puking his guts out into the latrine while something blue zips about the room... he’d be lying if he said that his heart didn’t melt a little at first sight.  
  
.  
  
“His name’s Khnum,” Roxas says shyly as the damselfly settles on his pinky finger, iridescent wings twitching like he wants to take off again. “We’re both a little stir crazy right now,” he explains apologetically when his daemon _does_ take off again, buzzing angrily around the ceiling.  
  
“First time on a ship?” Axel asks and the kid chuckles a little bit.  
  
“That obvious?”  
  
From where he’s (briefly) perched on the overhead fan, Roxas’ daemon makes a kind of irritated buzzing sound.  
  
Fi is watching him so intently that she doesn’t even notice when Axel reaches out to flick her gently. She gives him a reproachful look and scoffs under her breath. “What? I’m not gonna eat him,” she hisses petulantly, climbing up his neck until she’s all but hidden in his hair. “I just aint never seen a bug daemon before.”  
  
“And what exactly is wrong with me?” Khnum says, wings beating furiously so close to Fi’s face that for a second Axel’s worried that the damselfly is going to get stuck in his hair. For her part, Fi doesn’t seem startled at all, just blinks very slowly at him and tries to lick him.  
  
“I never said nothing was wrong with you, you big-eyed freak, just that I ain't never seen one of you before,” she cocks her head a little bit, studying him as he zips back and forth in front of them. “You’re all kinds of pretty though.”  
  
At that, the damselfly’s wings actually stop, long enough that Roxas has to dart a hand out to catch him. The kid’s flushing real pretty now, cheeks all red and rosy, nothing like the ashy gray that Axel’s surely turning.  
  
Roxas sputters a bit, so Axel fights down the urge to smother Fiametta with his hair and grins. “Well then, now that you’re done blowin’ chunks, how ‘bout I get you some soup?”  
  
.  
  
When they were younger, Fi always favored reptiles and amphibians—great horned lizards from the planets along the outskirts of the Andromeda galaxy, tiny little orange sand skimmers from their own planet, poisonous frogs from the more tropical planets, even the terrible lizards of Earth’s childhood years once or twice.  
  
She’d change to mammals or birds if it suited her, but she’d always prefered colder blooded creatures.  
  
(There was the solid week that she’d tried to spend as a phoenix and ended up catching half the house on fire, but that didn’t count.)  
  
So when she’d settled into a salamander native to parts of Earth and her colonies, Axel hadn’t been too surprised. His mother had looked at Fi, shaking both of her heads and giving Axel a shaky smile with each. “First of the family to have a daemon settle as something from earth since your great-great-great-grandpappy was a boy,” she told him, stroking Ursula as the cephalopod daemon happily stroked it’s tendrils along Fi’s back.  
  
Fi had rolled her eyes, but nuzzled right back.  
  
The next time that Fi will ever nuzzle another person’s daemon will be fifteen years later on a crappy ship enroute to Flint’s fabled treasure planet and she’ll be nuzzling the daemon of the boy that they’re about to rob blind.  
  
.  
  
“You don’t understand!” Fi squeals, Marduk’s big paw all but crushing her to the deck. “Let them go! Let them go, right this second!” she yells, dissolving into expletives when Larxene and her daemon both cackle. Roxas whimpers and it’s all Axel can do to snarl and struggle against Xaldin’s tight grip. He manages to get an elbow free and crack Xaldin in the face before Fi lets out a little strangled scream.  
  
The only good thing about this situation is that he can still see Khnum zipping around above them, far enough that it’s probably hurting to all hell but at least out of Larxene’s reach for now.  
  
Larxene laughs when Fi starts sobbing, and Axel has never ever regretted her, but for the first time he wishes that she’d settled on something a little more deadly. By the time Larxene’s done cutting Roxas open, Khnum is perched on a section of solar sail making distressed little noises that Axel can hear from the main deck.  
  
When Larxene tosses Roxas overboard, it takes Axel twelve seconds to slap her and steal Xigbar’s schooner.  
  
It takes Khnum another five to catch up to them and when he does, he settles on the patch of skin at the base of Axel’s neck, the touch of tiny legs against skin such a shock that Axel nearly swerves out of the dive.  
  
“Please catch him,” he murmurs, finally passing out when Fi curls protectively around him.  
  
Axel does catch him, but he’s bleeding so much that when Axel drops him off on Sora’s ship, Fi has to be pried away from Khnum before they can leave.  
  
.  
  
“I should have listened when they told me to never trust pirates,” Roxas hisses and Axel feels empty and used, wrists chafed and sore, still dripping spunk and it isn’t even that that hurts. It’s the way Khnum turns away from Fi, never once saying a word to her.


End file.
